The Twenty Minute VC (20VC): Venture Capital | Startup Funding | The Pitch
00:43:29 · Harry Stebbings, Luca Ferrari
[00:43:29] S1: Is there anything that you do differently about the fundraising processes having been through them? Different things on negotiation, on price, on length, anything that you would do differently? [00:43:38] S0: Yeah. I think you wanna create a certain level of competition if you can. I'm very happy with the investors we have. We could have obtained better terms early on and we could have closed faster and create a little bit more competition. Because often what they tell you and they might actually mean it, the initial enthusiasm. You always hear this is awesome. We definitely gonna invest. We're gonna cover the whole round. You don't need to talk to anybody else. This would be amazing. And then once due diligence starts, there's always a tendency to then commit a little bit less capital, try to walk back on a few of the key terms. And if you don't have any competitive tension, it's hard to avoid that from happening. But if you have a reasonable amount of competitive pressure then... And and you keep it up all the way to the end. Big mistake is to just base your selection on the early feedback and then wave goodbye to all those you don't plan to take on board and proceed only with the one or two that you plan to take on board, you shouldn't do that. Just keep a broader spectrum of parties involved up to the very end when you're signing. [00:44:35] S1: What's the immovable term for you? You mentioned terms that are important. Is there one that's like, hey, no mas, not gonna budge on that one?
00:44:35 · Harry Stebbings, Luca Ferrari
[00:44:35] S1: What's the immovable term for you? You mentioned terms that are important. Is there one that's like, hey, no mas, not gonna budge on that one? [00:44:43] S0: Well, it changed each time, but I would say one that stayed the same throughout our rounds was liquidation preferences. All our share owners, myself, our institutional investors, our colleagues who got equity through their working at the company. Nobody has any liquidation preferences, so we're all on equal terms economically. The reason why we fought very hard to avoid that is we didn't want our colleagues who, despite our efforts to educate them financially, of course, are not as financially savvy as an investor. And unlike an investor, which has maybe dozens or even hundreds of investments, many of them bet their, metaphorically speaking, their house on the company. We really didn't want to be in a situation where had things gone poorly, then everybody would be left empty ended by one or two investors. That was something we really pushed against. [00:45:31] S1: Well done. That... That's a good thing to be able to push against, and that's not an easy one with the scale of cash you raised. I do wanna move into a quick fire, Luca. I say a short statement, you give me your immediate thoughts. Does that sound okay? [00:45:42] S0: Yeah. Alright. Let's do that. [00:45:44] S1: What have you changed your mind on
00:45:44 · Harry Stebbings, Luca Ferrari
[00:45:44] S1: What have you changed your mind on [00:45:45] S0: in the last twelve months? I used to think that I should try to read as many books as possible. Quantity, I wouldn't say is irrelevant, but not so important. What's really valuable is to select them well and try to read each and analyze each in-depth, really ponder. You learn a lot more. It's a lot [00:46:02] S1: more useful that way. What three books would you most recommend to someone listening? [00:46:06] S0: Our Mathematical Universe by Max Tegmark. I'll say The Selfish Gene by Richard Dawkins. And then maybe to go fiction versus non fiction, I would say A Gentleman in Moscow by Amor Tawls. I believe that's how you pronounce it. Wonderful, wonderful novel. Maybe the best novel I've ever read. One of the best. [00:46:25] S1: I was gonna suggest Venture Deals by Brad Felden, so you have a lot more diversity than me, Luca. So don't worry. Some people tell me I need to get out of venture. I probably agree with them. What does a day look like for you? Do you have a routine? I'm just intrigued. You look like a fit dude.
00:46:25 · Harry Stebbings, Luca Ferrari
[00:46:25] S1: I was gonna suggest Venture Deals by Brad Felden, so you have a lot more diversity than me, Luca. So don't worry. Some people tell me I need to get out of venture. I probably agree with them. What does a day look like for you? Do you have a routine? I'm just intrigued. You look like a fit dude. [00:46:41] S0: I mean, I don't think I have anything incredibly surprising. Wake up around seven, 07:30, walk my dogs, go to the gym. Either, you know, can run, maybe lift weights. I try to mix it up a little bit. Then I have breakfast and read at the same time. That's my half an hour of meditation. To me, reading and eating a light breakfast is really recharging. And then I have my work day. I try to have a lot of time to do individual work. I think you'd be surprised by our few meetings and external meetings particularly. What we're doing here is quite rare for me. I maybe do two of these, three per year max. So most of the time I spend it doing individual work. We promote individual work a lot at the company at all levels. We want all of our managers to be incredibly hands on. [00:47:19] S1: Do you not have direct reports that report to you, Luca? Yeah, I do.
00:47:19 · Harry Stebbings, Luca Ferrari
[00:47:19] S1: Do you not have direct reports that report to you, Luca? Yeah, I do. [00:47:22] S0: I do. Once every two weeks, maybe it takes about five hours a week. And then I have other meetings, but I would say I probably have no more than twenty hours of meeting a week and I squeeze in maybe forty, fifty hours of individual work each week. And then I try... Tend to be done around maybe 08:39 in the evening. I spend an hour with my fiancee, with my dogs again, you know, they're just chatting, watching a part of a movie, eating dinner, then walk the dogs again, read a book, fall asleep. Pretty simple. [00:47:51] S1: Tell me, if you could choose one person as a board member, who would it be? It can be anyone. [00:47:56] S0: Siddhartha, the fictional character from the book by Hermann Hesse. I think it'd be great as a board member. [00:48:02] S1: Most say Bill Gurley, so, you know, good. That that works for me. [00:48:07] S0: That's boring. [00:48:08] S1: That that works for me too. What's the biggest piece of BS advice that you hear most often, Luca? [00:48:13] S0: The opinion I hear most often that I think is really poorly informed and poorly thought out is that artificial intelligence will create more jobs than it will eliminate. We will see. I I might be very wrong. I'm quite confident that it will prove to be otherwise. Destruction of jobs? Yeah. If far in excess of job creation in the medium long term. I don't know if it's a few years or few decades, but I'm quite convinced of that. [00:48:38] S1: An ultimate one, what's the kindest thing anyone's done for
00:48:38 · Harry Stebbings, Luca Ferrari
[00:48:38] S1: An ultimate one, what's the kindest thing anyone's done for [00:48:41] S0: Two friends from middle school or classmates. I told you I was almost pathologically shy at the time. They went out of their way to pull me out of my shell and teach me how to socialize with others. For two kids of 10 years of age, to do that showed a level of, I think, selflessness and maturity that I still remember today with incredible gratitude. And it changed my life, for real. [00:49:07] S1: And you gave them 10% of Bending Spoons to thank them in gratitude. [00:49:12] S0: I did not, but maybe I should. [00:49:14] S1: Oh, you know, it's a it's a $230,000,000 gift. I'd I'd help you socialize more if if that was on the cards. Final one for you, Luca. The most ambitious that you can be for Bending Spoons, ten years out, What is Bending Spoons then if everything goes right?